Gabor Por's personal blog

What would you do, how would your behavior change if you’d know that you and everyone on Earth would die within a few hours due to an unavoidable catastrophe? Would you let your inhibitions fall down and commit vile acts of abominations no matter how vile society thinks it is? Or would you commit random act of kindness even at the end of the world? The answer may surprise you. This would be the ultimate test of what’s inside you, what kind of person are you at the bottom of your heart. Or find out whether you even have one. Continue reading →

A month ago I went to a concert at Aubergine (now called 755 After Dark) titled “Rock n Roll ugly Xmas sweater party“. This was before Christmas and indeed there were people in ugly sweaters, there was even a competition. I am proud to say I don’t have such sweater so I was only there as an observer. Four bands played that night, but I missed the first one, The Corner Store Kids. I have a two songs from each of the other 3 bands on my YouTube channel, check out the full playlist. Continue reading →

It’s easy to empathize with the obvious lesson of this sci-fi, romance drama: emotions, memory and their interdependence is what makes us human. What I would like to point your attention to is a lesson that is less frequent in movies and books with a target audience and protagonist of teens: what they can learn from elders. The movie’s title is the giver, referring to the older man, who shares wisdom with a young receiver, even though the former gets less screen time. He builds up not just a sense of history and opens up emotions and senses, but by doing so also builds up the receiver’s ego.

Yes, our elders in addition of being vehicle of information and knowledge that can help us understand the world are also mentors, and can shape our very own sense of self. I am in the fortunate situation of being in the middle generation, where I already see that my choices of words, actions and exposure to the wonders of the world that I share with my children will make them become the people they will be, while I finally also have the wisdom to pay attention to folks with more experience and years behind their belts. When I was a teen I was less interested in that. Continue reading →

It was entertaining and left me, the reader, with several notions to ponder upon. It had interesting science with some obviously obfuscated with one. So what’s not to like in Joe Halderman’s The Accidental Time Machine?

You can get the story from many sources, like wikipedia, Amazon or Goodreads, so I will focus only on what I found interesting in the book, including heavy spoilers. It is explicitly about the potential downsides of four things: academia, theocracy, capitalism and over/abuse of technology. Let’s take them one by one. Continue reading →

Even though the list is probably not complete as I may have forgotten to track every movie, tit is still pretty clear that I watched much less in 2014 than in previous years. Work and growing family are the main reason. Hope I can catch up in 2015.:-) Continue reading →

Below is the incomplete list of books I read (or listened to) in 2014. It is not accurate, because I was tracking my reading inconsistently through the year. (Past list of books I read: 2013, 2010, 2008) (The linked titles lead to the particular book at Amazon.)

I have a blog about Jewish books. Most of the time I post about new books, sometimes about events, book sales or older books. Here is the list of books that made it there during the month of December 2014:

I don’t enjoy movies, or people for that matter, making fun of others’ pain. On the surface “A Movie with Catherine Deneuve“* is not one of films, but if you are like me you get uncomfortable watching this comedy. For causal viewers it follows an unconventional roadtrip of two friends: men in their fifties who are the opposite of each other. Halperin is shy, hesitant, afraid of decisions and a stereotype of neurosis. Mano, on the other hand seems worldly, loud, outgoing. During the course of their adventures (read the synopsis) though the role of being reluctant goes back and forth between the two of them. As they go through phases of chasing various elusive women they keep switching leadership roles. Continue reading →

I have a blog about Jewish books. Most of the time I post about new books, sometimes about events, book sales or older books. Here is the list of books that made it there during the month of November 2014:

I used to go to lots of concerts as a teenager. When I first came to the US in 1990 I was still in that phase and when I learned about a punk club in Berkeley I was happy to frequent it. I’ve seen many bands at 924 Gilman, but don’t remember a lot of them. Somehow, maybe because of their unusual name, Angry Samoans is a band that I know I’ve seen there. So now, 24 years later, when I saw the flyer that they will be playing nearby, at the Aubergine, I couldn’t miss them.

Considering that there were 6 support bands and my stamina isn’t as fresh as a quarter century ago I tried to be as late as I could. I still saw three and a half bands before the headliners. I go there in the middle of Thought Vomit‘s set. I didn’t care for their vulgarity, but I am familiar with the mindset, which dictates that punk equals that. Still I appreciated their energy and classic punk attitude. (I recorded two of theirsongs.) Next up was Flesh Gordo, more of a hardcore band where the singer was signing in the audience. It was musically a bit more interesting as you can see from the song I captured. The last local band of the night was No Brainer, which had a local following as the pit became more active. (Check my video out.) Fourth up was Fang from the 1980’s Berkeley scene. They were clearly in a different age and experience group as seen in their mature stage presence. A touch slower, but moremelodic.Continue reading →